CISR-NAL urges state govt to use drones for farming

Hyderabad: CISR National Aerospace Laboratories is planning to talk with state governments to deploy its multipurpose drone Suchan for agricultural uses. “Despite its obvious use in military surveillance, we want to promote it for civilian applications such as in agriculture, mining, etc,” said Roshan Antony, senior scientist, MAV Unit, CSIR-NAL.

He said the drone could be of a great use in agriculture. “If we can find out the exact area, where the crop is infected, we can apply insecticides only in that area. This would save money for farmers and also reduce the use of harmful chemicals in our food,” Mr Antony said at CISR-NAL stall at Wings India.

He said CISR-NAL is in talks with the Karnataka government through the state’s Knowledge Commission to encourage the drone’s use in agriculture. Though the exact model of service delivery is yet to be worked out, he said a drone could be stationed at taluka headquarters from where one could service all farmers in that area.